NHS beds summary by year, 1989-90 onwards
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Metadata
- High level information
- Summary information
- Statistical quality information
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Title
NHS beds summary data since 1989-90Last update
28/08/2024Next update
September 2025 (provisional)Publishing organisation
Welsh GovernmentContact email
stats.healthinfo@gov.walesDesignation
NoneLowest level of geographical disaggregation
WalesGeographical coverage
WalesLanguages covered
English and WelshData licensing
You may use and re-use this data free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government License - see http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licenceGeneral description
This data covers a time period during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, which has affected NHS services.During the pandemic, hospital services in Wales were reorganised due to enhanced infection prevention and control measures, and the need to treat COVID and non-COVID patients separately. Subsequently, planned operations were significantly reduced and non-urgent emergency admissions decreased. As a result, hospitals experienced lower occupancy rates in 2020-21 than in previous years.
This table presents summary information, from the QueSt1 return, provided by the NHS Wales Informatics Service (NWIS), on bed use in Wales.
Data presented in this statistical release are an annual average and illustrate yearly changing occupancy rates and bed availability. Therefore, these data won’t reflect changing levels of activity throughout the year.
The data do not present data on average length of stay, turnover interval and bed use factor. These indicators are calculated using data on deaths and discharges which is no longer collected via the QS1 return, and need to be derived from the Patient Episode Database for Wales (PEDW) for 2012-13 onwards. When carrying out more detailed analysis of the deaths and discharges data from PEDW in preparation for the 2012-13 release, data quality issues arose in relation to assessment unit (AU) activity reporting in QS1 and in PEDW and how this should be treated in the data. It was identified that there is inconsistency in the reporting of assessment units, with some LHBs reporting AU activity within their beds data, and others omitting them. This inconsistency in the reporting of AU activity is also likely to affect historic data.
Please find information on changes to the data published on NHS beds, as per the given weblink.
Data collection and calculation
Please find this information in the related statistical release, as per the given weblink.Frequency of publication
AnnualData reference periods
Provides data on bed use in Wales since 1989-90.Users, uses and context
Please find this information in the related statistical release, as per the given weblink.Revisions information
Please find this information in the related statistical release, as per the given weblink.Statistical quality
During the pandemic, hospital services in Wales were reorganised due to enhanced infection prevention and control measures, and the need to treat COVID and non-COVID patients separately. Subsequently, planned operations were significantly reduced and non-urgent emergency admissions decreased. As a result, hospitals experienced lower occupancy rates in 2020-21 than in previous years.Therefore, caution should be exercised in comparing occupancy rates between 2020-21 and previous years.
The Digital Health and Care Wales (DHCW) daily COVID-19 SITREP is the main data source for COVID-19 hospitalisation figures, with data published daily by Welsh Government. The data presented in this statistical release is based on a different source, different definitions and different hospital types. Therefore comparisons should not be made between these two collections.
Recoding for 2016-17: It has been identified that North Wales Adolescent Service moved from their site in Colwyn Bay to Abergele Hospital in 2009. Prior to 2009-10, these beds were recorded under North Wales Adolescent Service, while they have been recorded under the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board total, and were not recorded under a hospital site, from 2009-10 onwards. During 2016-17, it was agreed that this data should be recorded under Abergele, and this change is reflected in the publication.
Ysbyty Gwynedd and University Hospital Llandough submitted data under the neurology specialty in 2016-17. This has been reported under other neurology, as this is consistent with how data is submitted by other hospitals.
Recoding in 2017-18: From April 2016, new codes were introduced for describing specialties to add more detail to data collections. Until all health boards are able to report data consistently using the more detailed codes, we have recoded specialties as their previous description to avoid inconsistent reporting. Specifically, ‘Breast Surgery’ data has been recoded as ‘General Surgery’ which is how it has been recorded historically. We recoded ‘Stroke Medicine’ as ‘General Medicine’ and ‘Interventional Radiology’ as ‘Radiology’.
Please find further information regarding data quality in the related statistical release, as per the given weblink.
